Shocks for Rock Crawling

[trigrate]

What is the best brand of shock absorbers for rock crawling?

[zebracrawler]

Depends on what kind of ride quality you're looking for the bilstein 5100 is usually the best option for most people. I have noticed they are a little stiff if you have a truck and running them in the rear.

[mudmaster]

Rancho RS 9000 XL. The Bilsteins were too soft for me.

[calux]

bilstein 5125s are a good choice

[blackdiamond]

Rancho RS 9000 XL. The Bilsteins were too soft for me.

Concur. I may have had the wrong application of the 5100 as I cannot imagine anyone being happy with them for crawling. I bottomed them out in Moab constantly dropping off ledges. With the Ranchos that are physically nearly identical in length it rarely happens.

[Gnarly4X]

Over my 20+ years of wheeling, I ran Rancho, KYB, Bilstein, Monroe, and Pro Comp.  My consideration was based on my Toy pickups being both week-end warriors and daily drivers. I found that Ranchos failed and leaked sooner than they should, but had nice features like adjustable stiffness knob.  Too stiff on the highway was not desirable, so I tried to find a compromise for highway and trail. Since 95% of my wheeling was slow rockcrawling stiffness on the trails was not a big deal, it was the extension and compression lengths.  Optimum articulation was most desired. KYBs tended to get stiffer after awhile, Bilsteins seemed to go softer, Monroe had minimum options, so ended up running mostly Rancho and I tried every one of their models, ending up with 9000s with the adjusting knob somewhere in the middle.  Now there are way more options for shocks.

Gnarls.

[blackdiamond]

Over my 20+ years of wheeling, I ran Rancho, KYB, Bilstein, Monroe, and Pro Comp.  My consideration was based on my Toy pickups being both week-end warriors and daily drivers. I found that Ranchos failed and leaked sooner than they should, but had nice features like adjustable stiffness knob.  Too stiff on the highway was not desirable, so I tried to find a compromise for highway and trail. Since 95% of my wheeling was slow rockcrawling stiffness on the trails was not a big deal, it was the extension and compression lengths.  Optimum articulation was most desired. KYBs tended to get stiffer after awhile, Bilsteins seemed to go softer, Monroe had minimum options, so ended up running mostly Rancho and I tried every one of their models, ending up with 9000s with the adjusting knob somewhere in the middle.  Now there are way more options for shocks.

Gnarls.

I run 9000s maxed out all the time. It works great with my Alcans.

[trigrate]

Sorry for the late response, guys. I forgot my password. I would like to thank everyone for the feedback. I went ahead and had Bilstein Shocks installed on my crawler.

[blackdiamond]

Sorry for the late response, guys. I forgot my password. I would like to thank everyone for the feedback. I went ahead and had Bilstein Shocks installed on my crawler.

I hope you have the positive experience that so many seem to have. If you find them to be inadequate, the Rancho 9000xl has treated me well and resolved my issues with bottoming out my suspicion/shocks constantly while rock crawling in Moab. 

[trigrate]

Will keep that in mind. Thank you!

[mudmaster]

I had the same experience as BD and switched to the Ranchos.